directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly
Unlike most genre films this movie didn't shy away from making at least two of the people in the love triangle unpleasant, occasionally or completely. YMMV on this but it's absolutely essential to the story. This movie reverses the usual "..and then they lived happily ever after" motif to investigate what happens after two people meet and fall in love. It's a different challenge/question.
It's easy to fall in love with someone when they are clean, dressed to impress and shaking their tail feathers. It's more difficult to stay in love and accept someone else's occasional bad moods, unpleasant biological functions and irritating habits that over time could drive even the most patient spouse into sputtering incoherent rage. The first is infatuation. It may not last that long. The second is actual love, but usually takes more time to develop.
Eddie (Ben Stiller) is a San Francisco sports shop owner. Eddie is lonely, but afraid of settling down and getting married. His widower father Doc (Jerry Stiller-Ben Stiller's actual father) is a playboy. Doc's been in the game for years. He's not looking to get tied down again.
When Eddie muses that settling down with one woman would be giving up on all of the millions of other women he might meet, a choleric Doc retorts that Eddie hasn't gotten anywhere with any of the few women he has met. Beggars shouldn't be choosers.
Atypically Eddie intervenes in the apparent mugging of an attractive blonde woman Lila (Malin Ackerman). One thing leads to another and before long the two are an item. After six weeks Eddie thinks Lila is the one. When Lila's job requires an overseas transfer, Eddie impulsively decides to marry Lila, thus allowing her to stay stateside and keep her job. The newlyweds go on a Mexican honeymoon. But Eddie discovers that he has less in common with Lila than he thought. They don't enjoy many of the same activities.
Eddie can't stand Lila's voice when she sings along to music on the radio. He's shocked by some dodgy incidents in Lila's past. Lila's sex drive is far higher than Eddie's. In the bedroom, Lila says, wants, and demands things Eddie doesn't like. Eddie thinks this marriage was a mistake. But Lila seems happy.
Eddie's evasions become easier when Lila gets sunburn and decides to remain in the suite. Scheming to drop Lila, Eddie doesn't correct the misconceptions Miranda and her family have about his marital status. Miranda's relatives warm up to Eddie with the notable exception of her cousin Martin (Danny McBride), who displays the same suspicious possessive confrontational male energy around Miranda that a husband would show around his wife. Although Martin's attitude looks like sexual jealousy, it's not. Miranda recently dumped Martin's best friend. Martin immediately dislikes Eddie.
This movie is an extended Three's Company comedy of errors, misunderstandings, and jokes taken literally. The film infrequently noted something touching about the absurdity and necessity of love, desire, and commitment. Again this is a Farrelly Brothers film so there is slapstick. Much of it is gross. Stiller does a good job playing a man who is in equal measure sympathetic and contemptible. His lies and omissions pile up but you will laugh at him and with him simultaneously.
The viewer can decide if Lila's habits and quirks make her a bad wife or if Eddie is just immature and selfish. I leaned towards the latter view. Carlos Mencia is a stereotypical Mexican resort owner; Rob Corddry is Eddie's best friend who, married himself, tries to sell Eddie on the virtues of marital bliss.
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